Broadband News

Google has announced plans to offer 1 Gbps broadband at “competitive prices” to between 50,000 and 500,000 people in the United States.

The search giant says it wants to do this by building fibre to the home networks in a small number of trial locations, and has launched a competition to find communities to partner with.

Reactions to the news were immediate and rather over-excited, with one UK publication even speculating that Google could save Britain’s broadband future. However, a spokesperson for Google quickly put that idea to rest. “The first thing to emphasise is that we have no plans to extend this beyond some communities in the US,” he said.

Shame.

Of course, Google hasn’t lost sight of its main business. The motivation for building a fibre network is to experiment with “new ways to help make Internet access better and faster for everyone”. Google wants to see what developers and end-users can do with ultra high-speeds, and whether it can find the elusive “killer app” for superfast broadband.

In the announcement on its blog, Google waxed lyrical about the potential of high-speed broadband applications:

"Imagine sitting in a rural health clinic, streaming three-dimensional medical imaging over the web and discussing a unique condition with a specialist in New York. Or downloading a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes. Or collaborating with classmates around the world while watching live 3-D video of a university lecture. Universal, ultra high-speed Internet access will make all this and more possible."

But before it can do this, Google will have to break out the shovels and possibly climb a few telegraph poles. Infrastructure projects are not exactly uncharted territory, and that’s why Google is wisely seeking the most favourable conditions - including cooperation from local government.

“Above all, we're interested in deploying our network efficiently and quickly, and are hoping to identify interested community partners that will work with us to achieve this goal. To that end, we'll use our RFI [request for information] to identify interested communities and to assess local factors that will impact the efficiency and speed of our deployment, such as the level of community support, local resources, weather conditions, approved construction methods and local regulatory issues. We will also take into account broadband availability and speeds that are already offered to users within a community."

The RFI is a first step. Google plans to consult with local government organizations, as well as conduct site visits and meet with local officials, before announcing its final decision. The hope is to name the communities and start the deployment by the end of 2010.


Google plans to own and operate the networks itself, but not become a service provider. Instead it plans to operate an "open access" network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers. An ardent supporter of net neutrality, Google says it will manage its network in an open, non-discriminatory and transparent way.

When asked whether the network would be 100% funded by Google, or whether the cost would be split with the community, the spokesperson said: “We will pay. We are not asking for any special privileges or incentives.”

With a cash position of more than $24.5 billion at the end of 2009, it looks like Google can afford it – even though such networks don’t come cheap.

Estimates for the cost of deploying fibre lie somewhere north of $1000 per home, although the figure could be lower in high-density urban areas with apartment blocks, or substantially more in remote, rural areas.

Google also says it plans to try out new ways of building fibre networks, and share what it learns with the rest of the world.